Photo: Geoff Burke, USA Today Sports
Each week over the course of 10 weeks, NoVa Caps’ contributor Michael Marzzacco will take a look back at what he believes were the Top 10 Moments of the 2015-2016 Washington Capitals’ season.
#2 Caps Comeback from a 3-0 Deficit to Defeat Lightning – December 18, 2015
The Tampa Bay Lightning came to DC, took a commanding 3-0 lead, and hoped to get a big road win over the top team in the league. Alex Ovechkin, TJ Oshie and Marcus Johansson had other ideas. You can read the NoVa Caps’ game re-cap by clicking here.
Down 3-0 late in the second period, Ovechkin tallied a power play goal. It came off an assist by Oshie. Ovechkin ripped a shot at Netminder Ben Bishop, Oshie grabbed the rebound and fed the puck back at Ovechkin with a spectacular no-look pass that mirrored Steve Nash…or if you’re thinking on more hockey terms, looked like a saucy pass by Evgeny Kuznetsov. Ovechkin was perfectly positioned to take hold of the backwards pass and faked out the goalie allowing Ovechkin to score on the second try.
Entering the dressing room down 3-1 is a whole lot better than entering the dressing room down 3-0, and the Capitals were determined to take control of the game in the final period. The third period became known as the strongest of the periods for the Caps.
Oshie scored at 7:54 to make it a one-goal game. It came on the transition after Phillip Grubauer, who replaced Braden Holtby after the Bolts went up 3-0, made an exceptional save.
The Capitals went to the power play almost halfway through the period and at 9:58 a loose puck in the middle found its way to Ovechkin, he did his classic curl-and-drag move and before we knew it, the game was tied!
The Caps got another power play when Dmitry Orlov drew a tripping penalty at 13:29. And they converted shortly thereafter. Oshie fed the puck to Nicklas Backsrom up the middle. Backstrom passed to Ovechkin, who was to his left. Ovechkin passed right away to Oshie in the middle where Oshie found Marcus Johansson on the right and he buried it past Bishop which put the Caps up for the first time of the game.
The Caps sealed the win with an empty net goal by Oshie. 5-3 would be the final score. It was one of Oshie’s best performances in a Capitals sweater as he finished with two goals and two assists, including the assist on the game-winner. It was games like this one that remind us of the significant impact Oshie has added to the Caps’ roster.
Five unanswered goals after trailing 3-0 is why this moment is #2 on my top 10 countdown. It also had many of us thinking about the “Mystery of Momentum“.
Now that you’ve seen 9 memorable moments, what will the top moment of the season be? Check back next week on NoVaCaps.com to find out!
In case you missed the other eight moments you can take a look by clicking below:
Number 10
Number 9
Number 8
Number 7
Number 6
Number 5
Number 4
Number 3
By Michael Marzzacco
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